Disgaea DS Review

Five years later, it's still the ultimate turn-based strategy game.

One of the key features of Disgaea is the geo symbol system. On most maps, certain panels will glow in different colors. These are the geo panels. You'll also find small pyramids called geo symbols lying around. Bear with me here, because I'm going to make your brain explode: The geo symbols each possess one stat-altering effect, but they have to be resting on a panel in order to be activated. If they are, their effect will be transmitted to every panel of the same color and therefore to any character standing on one of them. So if the symbol "attack +50" is sitting on a red panel, then any character standing on a red panel will be imbued with an attack bonus of +50. These symbols can be destroyed, and if they're resting on a color different than their own they will destroy all the panels sharing that hue. It's possible to create enormous combos that clear all the panels from a map, kill all the enemies, and earn you a hefty bonus. In this way, Disgaea can be approached as a puzzle game, if you so desire.

You should probably clean up all those bits of your brain before you continue reading.

In between battles, you can make proposals to the Dark Assembly, the ruling body of the Netherworld, for legislation like better items in the shops or less powerful enemies. The senators are all demons and can be bribed into voting your way. Once they have voted you can either accept their decision or try to defeat them all and beat them into submission. These flashes of dark humor are what give Disgaea so much personality.

The lacklustre use of the top screen is one of my few gripes with Disgaea DS.

Multicard wireless play is available for two player head-to-head matches. There are nine multiplayer maps available and battles play out much like they do in single-player. You can use the party you've built in story mode, but you can't use items and you won't gain experience. The winner will receive two points and the loser will receive one. Multiplayer points are cumulative and build your ranking, but only in this wireless mode. If you're not feeling particularly violent, you can connect with a friend to buy or sell items.

Aside from the story progression, there is the Item World, which is almost a game unto itself. Every item in the game contains a world that Laharl can delve into. Here, he fights through a series of battles much like in the story mode. The thing is, he can only escape every 10 levels. If he is defeated at any point in the Item World, he'll lose all his progress and starts from his last save. The purpose of the Item World is to gain experience, find powerful items, and level up the item the world is contained in. This feature provides almost infinite gameplay opportunities for those that want to extend their experience.

The Verdict

Disgaea might be the deepest experience available for your DS. If I were stranded on an island with my DS and just one game, this would be it. There are enough game mechanics and features here to make your head spin -- more than I could get into in this review. The bottom line is this is one of the greatest strategy games ever made. You can get lost in here. The story is overflowing with humor and personality, and the artwork is beautiful. Disgaea is a little too hardcore for some, but if you're a fan of the genre you should check it out. Even if you played the original game, you might find yourself falling in love all over again. It's not as pretty as Final Fantasy Tactics A2 -- A2 was made for the DS, and Disgaea is a PlayStation 2 port being forced into this dual-screen design. It's still a terrific game, but the two screens haven't been used to their best advantage. Now I really want to see NIS make an original Disgaea game for DS.